On May 7, Chevron struck another blow in its long campaign to undermine a multibillion-dollar pollution judgment it faces in Ecuador. Under pressure from the oil company, Patton Boggs, the powerful Washington law firm that represented rain forest residents and once vowed to assure the enforcement of the Ecuadorean judgment against the company, withdrew from the case.
In an extraordinary concession, Patton Boggs said it regretted its involvement in the lawsuit. Earlier this year a federal judge in New York ruled that the case, involving contamination in Ecuador’s northeastern oil-producing region, had evolved into an extortion scheme aimed at the San Ramon (Calif.) oil company. Patton Boggs also agreed to provide Chevron with supportive testimony and to pay the company $15 million as a tangible symbol of its abasement.
